The coin hoard which dates from 50BC weighs about three quarters of a tonne

Traces of gold and silver may be buried within the hoard of Roman and Celtic coins found in Jersey last week.

Olga Finch, curator of archaeology at Jersey Heritage, said: “We have spotted traces of jewellery, a piece of twisted silver and little thin sheets of gold with a hint of decoration on the edge.”

She said once they had removed the items they could be identified.

The 50,000 coins, thought to be worth up to £200 each, were found by two metal detectorists last week.

The find was believed to be one of Europe's largest hoards of ancient coins and weighed about three quarters of a tonne.

'Exciting discoveries'

Ms Finch said: “The fact that there are traces of jewellery and person ornaments and belongings, it puts a whole new dimension to it.”

The hoard was discovered after more than 30 years of searching by Reg Mead and Richard Miles.

Now Jersey Heritage staff are working with the Société Jersiaise and experts from the British Museum to build a clearer picture of what was found.

Neil Mahrer, conservator with Jersey Heritage, said: “As we unravel the story behind the hoard we are beginning to make some very exciting discoveries.”

He said the coins were of Armorican origin – the modern day Brittany and Normandy in France – and were from a tribe called the Coriosolitae, who were based around Rance in the area of modern-day Saint Malo and Dinan.

Neil Mahrer said: “As we unravel the story behind the hoard we are beginning to make some very exciting discoveries”

He said the coins dated from the time the armies of Julius Caesar were advancing north-westwards through France, driving the tribal communities towards the coast.

“Some of them would have crossed the sea to Jersey, finding a safe place of refuge away from Caesar's campaigns,” Mr Mahrer.

“The only safe way to store their wealth was to bury it in a secret place.”

The hoard has been reported to the HM Receiver General who will determine its status.

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This is one of my shameless attempts to increase traffic by using the name of a popculch icon in a post … from the incipit of an item at one of those azcentral pages (probably originally in the Republic) :

Katy Perry was suspended from school for ”humping a tree”.

The ‘Part of Me’ singer – who was raised by strict Christian parents and went to a religious school – admits she was disciplined by her teachers after acting out a love scene with a tree.

She said: ”When I was in sixth grade I was suspended from school for humping a tree! We were doing a play on Greek mythology and I was Aphrodite My love interest was absent and so I used the tree as my partner.”

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A couple of years ago, we first mentioned the existence of some Japanese Manga (a.k.a comic, although they’re closer to graphic novels than what we North Americans think of as comics) called Thermae Romae, the premise of which is that some ancient Roman gets magically transported from a Roman bath to a modern Japanese one. Since that first mention, there have been a cou ple of developments which are worth bringing up. First, the manga series is available online (it’s nice to read on your ipad via the manga storm app):

Now just a few minutes ago, Chuck Jones prodded my memory of all this by pointing us to the official (Japanese) website of the movie. Sadly, it’s all java-based, so Google translate isn’t very helpful … perhaps someone who is familiar with japanese can enlighten us in the comments. I am told there might be Latin in the Roman parts, but I can’t find an example of it at youtube … whatever the case, I hope this hits our part of the world soon … the manga is hilarious.

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rogueclassicism: 1. n. an abnormal state or condition resulting from the forced migration from a lengthy Classical education into a profoundly unClassical world; 2. n. a blog about Ancient Greece and Rome compiled by one so afflicted (v. "rogueclassicist"); 3. n. a Classics blog.